With its distinctive broad paneled border, this lot is typical of seventeenth-century Spanish mirror production. Most commonly executed in giltwood, ebony or ebonized fruitwood, such mirrors can be found throughout the European continent, but were most commonly produced on the Iberian peninsula and in the Spanish Netherlands. Related Spanish examples with paneled frames include a rectangular mirror sold Christie’s, New York, 22 October 2024, lot 233 and an oval one illustrated A. Alonso and M. Paz, El Mueble en España: Siglos XVI-XVII, Madrid, 1993, p. 369, fig. 344. The grandest and most visually complex versions of these mirrors feature octagonal outlines and multiple rows of paneling, examples of which include a giltwood mirror formerly in the collection of Nelson Grimaldi Seabra sold Christie’s, New York, 22 October 2003, lot 81 and another illustrated G. Child, World Mirrors, London, 1990, fig. 734.
The octagonal form of these mirrors reflects a strong Moorish cultural influence. Geometric concentric and interlaced design was popular throughout the Islamic world from the twelfth century onwards. With its spreading bands of plates, the form reveals the Moorish love of multiplicity and play of light. These aspects, combined with the traditional design elements of the European Baroque taste reflect the rich European-Moorish cultural mix of seventeenth-century Spain.
Among these mirrors, a conspicuous subgroup exists in which the mirror glass is decorated with polychrome paint. Simpler examples were painted with foliage and flowerheads, see S. Roche, et. al., Mirrors, Tübingen, 1985, p. 193, fig. 253. Of this subgroup, the richest models, such as this lot, feature colorful figural painting, with panels relating a narrative from antiquity or the Bible scene-by-scene around the mirror's perimeter. The mirror offered here is a lavish example and is related to a handful of similar works, including one in the collection of the Museo de la Fundación Duque de Lerma at the Hospital de Taverna, Toledo, Spain and a reverse-painted one in the Parador Hotel in Santiago de Compostela, which occupies a former pilgrims' hospital built in the late fifteenth century.
The painted decoration of our mirror is most closely related to that of the Toledo example, as both share an overall southern European sensibility, especially visible in the depiction and treatment of the trees. The rippled molding featured on this lot and on the Toledo example had been described as “of Flemish style.” This type of molding, as its name suggests, is not specific to Spanish decorative art, but is rather a northern import. This is not surprising in historical context, as part of present-day Belgium and the Netherlands were under Spanish rule during the seventeenth century, and Flemish craftsmen disseminated their artistry when traveling to the Iberian peninsula in hopes of work, fostering a truly international style. This type of molding is also found on a third related octagonal mirror with painted decoration sold Christie’s, Paris, 5 May 2011, lot 243, whose decoration is very similar in composition but is executed in a more restrained “northern manner,” and thus it was attributed to a French workshop.
Based on these related examples, it is clear that these lavish painted mirrors were not exclusively produced in Spain, but nonetheless evidently did enjoy a particular popularity there, as most examples survive in Spanish collections. Interestingly, our mirror is inscribed in Italian Favola di Orfeo (Story of Orpheus), which could suggest that the international language of mythology at the time was Italian, or that an itinerant Italian artist was involved in the creation of this lot, which would explain the abovementioned southern European quality of the painted decoration.